Integrated car child protection

ABSTRACT

Vehicle seats are disclosed including a seat, a backrest interconnected with the seat, a guide for displaceably removing the backrest along the seat from the rear to the front of the seat, and a lock for locking the backrest in an arbitrarily selected position between the rear and front portions of the seat.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a vehicle seat and more precisely aseat in which several user functions/possibilities are integrated in oneand the same seat.

The vehicle seat according to the invention, in addition to the normaluser function as a passenger seat, discloses a possibility for use as achild seat, facing forwards or backwards, and a possibility of use as abackward-facing reclining chair for an adult.

STATE OF THE ART

U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,503 relates to a vehicle seat in which the back restis displaceable relative to the seat part and fixable in a normalposition and a front end position, respectively. The back of the backrest has an arrangement for creating a backward-facing child seat whenthe back rest is positioned in the front end position.

Swedish published specification 448,219 discloses another example of howthe rear of the back rest, due to its specific design and adjustabilityto a front end position along the seat part, may be used for providing achild seat with the back of the child facing in the driving direction.

Swedish published specification 443,335 relates to a vehicle seat inwhich the rear of the back rest has a box which can be folded out toform a backward-facing child seat. The back is settable to a forwardinclination, but is not displaceable along the seat part.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

One object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle seat whichcombines passenger comfort and safety, for a child as well as an adult.

A further object of the vehicle seat is to offer resting comfort alsofor an adult.

Another object is to basically maintain exteriorly the traditionalvehicle seat design, which implies that the vehicle seat will be usefulin existing as well as newly manufactured vehicles.

Still a further object of the invention is to extend the field of use ofexisting, so-called integrated vehicle seats.

THE INVENTION

The invention provides a vehicle seat, comprising a seat part and a backrest, means interconnecting the back rest and the seat part, means forallowing displacement in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle ofthe back rest relative to the seat part, and means on the rear of theback rest for forming at least part of a child seat.

The vehicle seat is characterized in that said means for interconnectingthe back rest and the seat part comprise a frame arrangement having alocking member, which is releasable for rotation of the back rest 180°around a rotation axis extending in the height direction of the backrest.

In a preferred embodiment said means for allowing displacement of theback rest along the seat part in the longitudinal direction of thevehicle comprises a guide arrangement and means for fixing the back restto the seat part in an arbitrary position along the seat part.

In another preferred embodiment the seat part is provided with means forheight adjustment of the front and back edges thereof.

In a suitable embodiment the back rest has a flap arrangement which isoutwardly pivotable from the rear of the back rest and compriseselements forming side supports of a child seat.

To prevent a child from sliding under the safety belt, primarily whenthe child seat is in a position facing forwards, the seat part ispreferably rotatable or dividable along a horizontal axis, such that anunderside designed to prevent sliding will be facing upwards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described with reference to embodimentsdisclosed on the accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 shows a vehicle seat according to the invention having a box-likearrangement on the rear of the back rest of the seat and provided forforming a backward-facing child seat,

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of arrangements for forming abackward-facing child seat on the back rest of the vehicle seat, andshows with broken lines how the seat part may be rotated around ahorizontal axis or divided in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle,

FIG. 3 shows in broken lines the back rest in one embodiment rotatedround a rotation axis extending in the height direction of the backrest,

FIG. 4 shows schematically how the back rest is rotated around a studwhich rotatably interconnects the back rest and the seat part.

FIG. 5 shows a further development of a vehicle seat which may compriseone or more of the specific features of the seats in the previousembodiments.

The vehicle seat in FIG. 1 comprises a seat part 10 and a back rest 11.Brackets 12 at each seat side, having locking/positioning control 13 atat least one side, are attached to a back frame 14 (FIG. 3) and a seatframe 15 (FIG. 2).

The back frame and the back 11 mounted on said frame are inclinablerelative to the seat part 10 by means of the control 13. The brackets 12slide in longitudinal grooves 16 at either side of the seat and the back14, 11/back frame attached by means of the brackets is displaceablecontinuously along the seat part and lockable.

The arrows 17, 18 in the drawings indicate that the front and back edgesof the seat part are adjustable individually in the height direction.This is accomplished by means of arrangements known per se.

The arrow 19 in FIG. 3 indicates that the back rest 11 is moveable inthe height direction, i.e. together with the arrow 20 it is illustratedthat the back part may be raised upwards in the figure, thereafterrotated 180° round a rotation axis extending in the height direction ofthe back rest, and thereafter again lowered in the direction of thearrow 19 downwardly to lock into the seat frame 15.

FIG. 4 shows a stud 21 around which the back frame 14 and thus the backare rotated relative to the seat.

With reference to FIG. 1, this shows how a box 22 having sides 23, 24 isunfoldable from the rear of the back rest to form a child seat.

Another embodiment of the child seat is disclosed in FIG. 2 whereflap-like side protectors 25, 26 are unfoldable from the rear of theback rest.

The arrow 27 further indicates that the seat part is rotatable 180°around a horizontal rotation axis extending in the longitudinaldirection of the vehicle. The object of this is to provide an optimumdesign of the side of the seat part used for sitting in the differentapplications/fields of use which are relevant here.

Another possibility of achieving the said object resides in forming theseat part dividable along a division surface 28.

In all figures in the drawings the rear of the back rest is shown insolid lines.

Thus, in FIG. 1 the vehicle seat is arranged as a backward-facing childseat.

Broken lines show the vehicle seat arranged as a forward-facing childseat. In this application it is also possible to use a rotationpossibility or division of the seat part as in FIG. 2.

If the back part shown by broken lines in FIG. 3 is moved forwards alongthe guides 16 and the back rest is inclined forwards by means of thelocking/setting control 13 the reclining position for an adult mentionedin the introductory part will be obtained.

In FIG. 5 the reference numeral 41 schematically denotes the side wallof a vehicle, in this case at the front passenger seat position, and theopening 34 defined by the front and back door posts 32, 33 representsthe door opening.

The vehicle seat, which, as mentioned, can comprise several of thefeatures described previously, is shown in a first position to the leftin the figure and a second position to the right in the same figure. Thefirst position represents the normal seat position where the passengerin the seat is facing in the driving direction. The position to theright in FIG. 5 represents the opposite situation.

The vehicle seat comprises a seat portion and a back portion and a framemeans for reinforcing and interconnecting said seat portion and backportion. For the sake of simplicity, such elements have not beenindicated in FIG. 5. Additionally, the vehicle seat is provided withmeans for locking the seat in predetermined positions, and such meanshave not been shown as they basically are well known in general. Theexistence of such means has been shown by reference numeral 29.

The vehicle seat arrangement in FIG. 5 has a special guide means 30, 31for controlled movement and repositioning of the vehicle seat. Saidguide means comprise a first guide element 30 which defines a firstcurved movement path 36 for the vehicle seat. As indicated in FIG. 5,the movement path for a specific point of the seat extends outside thevehicle side 41, which means that the movement path, and thus the guideelement 30, are such that at least part of the vehicle seat can beplaced outside the door opening 34. To achieve this, the guide elementarrangement 30 can be arranged fully inside the side wall 41 or, ifnecessary and desired, there may be extendible parts of the guide 30which can be placed temporarily outside the side wall 41.

A second guide element arrangement 31 is mounted inside the vehicle,basically in the same manner as the first guide element 31, but with anopposite curvature seen in the driving direction. Said second guideelement arrangement defines a second movement path 37 and allowsreintroduction through the door opening 34 of said at least part of thevehicle seat which has been placed temporarily outside the door opening.When the vehicle seat has been moved all the way along the movement path37 to the end position shown in FIG. 5 the side 39 of the seat part isturned backwards and the opposite side forwards.

In FIG. 5 a third movement path 38 is indicated which defines atranslational movement which in certain cases it may be necessary toinclude in order to reintroduce the vehicle seat through the dooropening 34.

For controlling the movement of the vehicle seat during the operation ofturning the vehicle seat 180°, there is a guide means follower member 35which is arranged to allow translational and rotational movement alongthe first and second guide elements 30, 31. Such a guide means followermember has been shown very schematically merely to indicate that the180° rotation of the vehicle seat is carried out in a fully controlledmanner.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle seat for use in a vehicle including adoor opening, said vehicle seat comprising a seat portion including aforward section and a rearward section, a backrest portion, a frameinterconnecting said seat portion with said backrest portion, a seatguide for defining a movement path for said seat portion, and a seatlock for locking said seat portion in a predetermined position alongsaid movement path, said seat guide comprising a first seat guideportion defining a first movement path for said seat whereby said seatcan be placed temporarily outside of said door opening in said vehicle,a second seat guide portion defining a second movement path for saidseat portion whereby said seat portion can be reintroduced into saidvehicle through said door opening, and a guide follower attached to saidframe whereby said seat portion is removed translationally and rotatablyalong said movement path.
 2. The vehicle seat of claim 1 wherein saidfirst movement path comprises a first curved movement path, and saidsecond movement path comprises a curved movement path, said secondcurved movement path being curved in an opposite direction from saidfirst curved movement path, whereby said seat portion and said backrestportion can be oriented in a predetermined orientation along said firstmovement path and said vehicle seat can be reintroduced into saidvehicle with said seat portion and said backrest portion orientedoppositely from said predetermined orientation.
 3. The vehicle seat ofclaim 2 including a third seat guide portion defining a third movementpath for translational movement of said vehicle seat outside of saiddoor.
 4. A vehicle seat comprising a seat portion including a forwardsection and a rearward section, a backrest portion including a lowersection and an upper section, a frame for interconnecting said seatportion with said backrest portion, a guide for displaceably moving saidlower section of said backrest portion along said seat portion from saidrearward section to said forward section, rotatable support means forrotatable supporting said backrest portion about an axis extendingsubstantially parallel to said backrest portion whereby said backrestportion can be rotated about said axis to reverse said front surfacesand rear surfaces thereof, and at least a portion of a child's seatformed on said rear surface of said backrest portion.